Amy Schumer Speaks Out on Kurt Metzger’s Offensive Screed

Amy Schumer responded at length to the recent controversy surrounding comedian and Inside Amy Schumer writer Kurt Metzger, who posted a lengthy screed on his Facebook page mocking the response of women in the comedy community to a male comic who had been banned from the Upright Citizens Brigade theater for allegedly raping several women.

On Charlie Rose on Thursday night, Schumer — who just released her first book, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo — both distanced herself from Metzger’s comments and defended his place on the writing staff of her show.

“One of the reasons he’s such a great writer and such a great contributor to our television show is because his views are so different from that of mine and most of the other writers in the room,” Schumer said, “especially Jessi Klein, who’s the head writer on the show. We butt heads, we get in fights, because he infuriates us.” She said she wanted the show’s writer’s room to include a variety of opinions and viewpoints, especially because “Jessi and I have such similar sensibilities.”

But while she maintained that”Kurt’s my friend,” she expressed disappointment with his online ranting — and frustration that his actions inevitably circle back to her.

“I’m not on Facebook so I don’t read his crazy rants — he gets something from going after people and making them mad that is not representative of me at all. I’ve asked him, ‘Can you just stop?’ Because it comes back to me. Because he writes for the show it’s a bigger story, because of our connection, and so whatever tangent he’s gone off on I have not agreed with and it’s been really upsetting to me seeing someone that I care about hurt themselves like this.”

Schumer continued, “I would love to refocus the energy and attention on the real problem, which is, I feel, people understanding — it’s about rape. And what’s consensual and what’s not.”

She also clarified earlier tweets that seemed to suggest Inside Amy Schumer would not be returning for a fifth season as planned: “Right now there’s no plans for the TV show to come back at any time in the near future. So nobody’s on my staff, there are no writers.”

Something tells me that people won’t be forgetting about this incident when the show does eventually return to Comedy Central, and they’ll be looking to see if Metzger still has a spot on the writing staff. Schumer may call Metzger a “friend” but his ill-timed decision to go on a “satirical,” asinine rant two days before her book came out is a head-scratcher. With friends like these….